State officials claimed it carried out extreme turns and hit a top speed of Mach 6, or 7,344km/h, and hailed the test flight a “huge success”.

Despite being an experimental aircraft, the Waverider has the potential to carry warheads capable of outwitting existing anti-missile shields.

Current defence systems can only intercept incoming missiles flying at low speeds and whose trajectories can be easily predicted.

Beijing-based military analyst Zhou Chenming told The South China Morning Post the aircraft had “military applications”. The Waverider could initially be deployed with conventional weapons rather than nuclear ones.

“I think there are still three to five years before this technology can be weaponised,” he said.

Boeing and the US military are testing a hypersonic unmanned vehicle over the Pacific designed to reach mind-boggling speeds. ()

“As well as being fitted to missiles, it may also have other military applications, which are still being explored.”

Earlier this year, a top US general admitted the superpower is virtually defenceless against the futuristic nuclear weapons being built by Russia and China.

General John Hyten, chief of the US Air Force Strategic Command, told US senators the speed and maneuverability of hypersonic missiles makes them too hard for American defences to obstruct.

His warning came after Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new range of weapon delivery systems designed to evade NATO’s anti-missile defences.

Putin told TV viewers the country’s military was building a new hypersonic missile and a nuclear-powered cruise missile with “unlimited range” that could evade detection by Russia’s enemies.